Weekly wrap: strength, courage and cruelty

What a week this has been. A week of international intrigues, sad partings, and pure, unrestrained machismo.

Perhaps the most dramatic story of the week, as measured in total number of murders, was the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat due to Israel's use of forged Australian passports in the assassination of a senior Hamas operative. This was indeed the story that had everything - espionage, deception, murder, terrorism, moral complexity and strongly-worded parliamentary language, as Foreign Minister Stephen Smith made it clear in no uncertain terms that Australia would not tolerate such behaviour from its allies, going so far as to describe the incident as "regrettable", a ferocious outburst of rhetorical violence that drew sharp intakes of breath across the diplomatic community and no doubt caused chastened Mossad agents everywhere to shed a silent tear and think long and hard about where they'd gone wrong. The consensus everywhere was that Israel - a country with a long and distinguished history of respecting other nations' opinions and deferring to diplomatic niceties - had definitely learned its lesson and would never try on such shady shenanigans again, for fear of further expulsions or scoldings.

Mind you, there were those who believed the government went too far in expelling the diplomat, such as well-known international geopolitical expert Andrew Bolt, who pointed out what an unforgivable act of recklessness it was to follow a course of action which Alexander Downer says he wouldn't have made; and writer Alan Gold, who claimed, "The expulsion of a diplomat is one of the most serious moves a nation can take against another nation", although given he has actually lived in Israel, this may have been a clever use of irony.

The main point of Smith's action was that it was decisive. It was a strong, manly, hairy-chested gesture that showed that when it comes to international diplomacy, Australia may be a bit of a pussy, but we are absolutely strident in standing up for our right to be a pussy.

And it was a good week for strong, manly, hairy-chested action, especially from Julie Bishop, who came out swinging on the subject of forged passports, claiming, firstly, that everybody does it; secondly, not everybody does it, because Australia certainly doesn't; thirdly, that she didn't understand the question; and fourthly, she couldn't hang around talking all day because she had a terrible headache. It was a performance of impressive forcefulness and mesmeric nerve. Not for nothing is Bishop known around Canberra as "The Human Facial Tic". The government immediately seized on Bishop's comments, accusing her of breaching security conventions through her reprehensible revelations of non-existence intelligence activities.

However, even more momentous events were going on in the Liberal Party this week that meant the inquisition into Julie Bishop's security breaches and neutral pathways would have to be postponed. I speak of course of the news that Malcolm Fraser, a giant of the Liberals, had some months previously resigned from the party, believing it had moved unacceptably and irretrievably to the right. No doubt this confused many modern Liberals, who considered the accusation that the Liberal Party is too far to the right akin to an accusation that the Navy spends too much time hanging around on boats.

The problem is that Malcolm Fraser is what is called a "small-l" liberal, as opposed to a "Big-L Liberal", which is what Tony Abbott is. The "small-l" tradition was once prevalent in the Liberal Party, but has been banished by Abbott, who looks upon lower-case letters with contempt. He developed this hardline approach from his ideological mentor BA Santamaria, a man who loathed small letters so much he refused to have any in his first name. The small-l tradition is, alas, long gone from the parliamentary party, which has jettisoned old-fashioned principles of social justice and civil liberties for a more pragmatic, hard-nosed approach, centred upon free-market capitalism and shouting the phrase "Great Big New Tax!" at the top of your lungs upon the application of any external stimulus. An approach that excludes Fraser, who has warned of the dangers of excessive free-market dogma, and is far too softly-spoken to achieve the required volume.

But it is a shame he has quit the party. It could do with an elder statesman like Fraser, who has lost none of his mental acuity or analytical faculties, as demonstrated on this week's episode of Q&A, where he engaged in lively, intelligent debate and provided a well-thought-out critique of government policy without once regaining consciousness.

Perhaps in an attempt to cheer the troops after the disappointment of the Fraser news, Tony Abbott moved later in the week to unveil his asylum seeker policy, following his usual practice of not consulting the party room to spare them the potential trauma that can result from an MP becoming aware of his party's policy platform.

The asylum seeker policy is a tough and aggressive one, featuring the return of temporary protection visas, a requirement for refugees to work for welfare, and the practice of once more processing asylum seekers' claims in other countries. Intriguingly, though, Abbott did not say which countries, raising concerns in some quarters that his policy may act as an enticement rather than a deterrent, particularly if it turns out that refugees are to be processed in, say, Noumea, or France.

But these concerns aside, it is a strong and iron-fisted policy, one that tells the world just what a powerful, muscular, virile slab of testosterone Abbott truly is, and by contrast makes Kevin Rudd look, frankly, like the petulant schoolgirl he is often mistaken for in public places. "I'm a risk…to asylum seekers," Abbott growled, Chuck Norris-style, causing more than one political pundit to swoon to the floor at the sheer masculinity of it all.

Of course the usual suspects came out to claim the Opposition's policy to be "cruel", but it would be well to remember that sometimes, you've got to be cruel to be kind. And at other times, you've got to be cruel to get foreigners to stay in their own damn country.

Not that the week was all about cruelty. Elsewhere, in Victoria there were revelations from the Bushfire Royal Commission that Christine Nixon may have fibbed about going out to dinner on Black Saturday, once again showing the inherent danger in allowing a woman to head up a police force: eventually, they all succumb to the feminine urge to eat in pubs and burn people to death. Also in Victoria, scandal struck the AFL, and then quickly un-struck it, as two St Kilda players were accused of taking advantage of a 16-year-old girl - who is now pregnant - at a school clinic, before it was revealed they had actually taken advantage of a 16-year-old girl who pretended to be older, not at a school clinic; and thus did the football community breathe a sigh of relief that the AFL's record of strict sexual propriety remained intact.

And of course there was the mining tax, which continued to be a "hot topic" as people all around the country engaged in furious debate as to what the best way to get everyone to shut up about it might be.

But pyromaniac policewomen, saucy schoolgirls, and agonisingly protracted taxation discussions aside, in the end this week will be remembered for strength, courage, and, yes, cruelty. Whether it's the cruelty of Israelis murdering their enemies; the cruelty of Foreign Ministers chastising Israelis; the cruelty of Malcolm Fraser hurting his ex-party's feelings; the cruelty of Tony Abbott sending asylum seekers off to be processed in Provence; or the cruelty of Julie Bishop's advisers letting her out in public, we saw this week that cruelty in the service of a noble cause is no vice. In fact, it can be the highest virtue of all.